@Madder-Max I looked this up the other day - I'd assumed they were glitches, but it's apparently when someone uses a certain miracle in that spot - if you use particular miracles near them, their power is boosted. Apparently anyway; fucked if I really know

modula wrote:@Madder-Max I looked this up the other day - I'd assumed they were glitches, but it's apparently when someone uses a certain miracle in that spot - if you use particular miracles near them, their power is boosted. Apparently anyway; fucked if I really know

modula wrote:@Madder-Max I looked this up the other day - I'd assumed they were glitches, but it's apparently when someone uses a certain miracle in that spot - if you use particular miracles near them, their power is boosted. Apparently anyway; fucked if I really know

Still on Duke's Archives. Have pretty much figured that area out now just need to get a clean run through to the crystal caves. Also really like the idea of elementally boosting the hell out of the insectoid crossbow.

To be fair, I don' think the devs really need excusing, as 99% of the time they have got it spot on. Really well designed game in general. Just a few strange ones chucked in here and there!

I think I'll just write off those souls for now and carry on. Although I think that's the most souls I've ever lost, and certainly the most humanity. I wish I had kindled that first bonfire all the way now, but didn't want to waste my humanity. The irony

It can be a real kick in the face if you go to different areas at the start that youre not prepared for yet. Think of morrowind or something where you start the game and go straight into an ancestral tomb without a silver weapon. Death ensues straight away.

There is no hand holding and a lot of tough as fuck places are open straight away. The skeletons you'll batter later on so dont worry about them for now.

The white rings are when someone has used a miracle in their game when youre close by in the same location in your world. If you were to cast a miracle at the same area, your miracle would be boosted in potency.

As mentioned go up the steps to the right and try and take mobs on one at a time, locking onto them with your shield up. Eventually you'll get to the Undead Burg. This is where you want to be. Try and find the bonfire there to use it as your next checkpoint and then you can start working on that area. And have a good look around. There are hidden rooms that have important things and people in.

Try not to kill NPCs for now as most are helpful and a lot are merchants. Though the guy you killed at firelink isnt a major biggie - he's a twat anyway.

Also get a shield that has 100% damage protection - that will help absorb all the enemies attack via your stamina instead of stamina and your health

Some of the builds benefit from a bit of both. For instance, you could start with a thief or a wanderer, concentrate on dex for your main core skill, and then also have some intelligence for magic buffs or faith for some protective miracles.

Same applies for strength + intelligence, or strength + faith.

I wouldn’t worry too much to begin with though, as it sounds like you need to get your head round the souls games again.

So pick something you like to start with and follow some basics:-

1) Get a shield that does 100% physical damage blocking as soon as you can
2) And use it all the time when fighting. Lock onto enemies, shield up, let them hit your shield, you counter hit. Repeat till comfortable.
3) Take it very easy and try and stay calm at all times if possible
4) If you want to practice backstabbing, make sure you drop your shield before attempting it.
5) Kick ‘turtles’. Turtles are mobs (or players) that have their shield up all the time. Kicking them will stagger them and open them up, enabling you to get a hit in.
6) Try not to pull more than 1 mob at a time
7) *Don’t* be tempted by shiny objects in hard to reach places / places looming over a deadly drop. (See Matmans recent post in the depths for an example ) Wait till you’re more comfortable
8) Don’t worry about dying. You will die. A lot. It’s part of the game.
9) The single most important stat for 99% of the builds is endurance. It governs how long you can run for, your maximum roll speed, how much damage you can block with your shield, and, er, possibly something else.
10) The second most important stat is probably your core skill, closely followed by vitality (imo)
11) Upgraded weapons increase their potency quickly. You only have to upgrade a weapon a few times to notice a pleasing improvement
12) Go into the options and turn off “Auto camera recovery”. Just do it 
13) Don’t waste humanity if you come across it. Save it and check the guide below about humanity
14) Same with anything you’re not 100% on – don’t hastily consume things as like Demon’s souls, it can cost you greatly in the long run
15) If you come across a fog door, there’s a 50% chance there’s a massive boss behind it. So it might be worth spending your souls at a bonfire before attempting it.
16) Not forgetting of course, that when you rest at a bonfire, you get all your estus (health flask) renewed (and spells, and pyromancies etc), at the cost of the majority of enemies respawning again.
17) When you rest at a bonfire, it will renew your current maximum estus, which is 5 (Except for a few, like the starting area in Firelink Shrine which gives you 10). To increase this, read the below humanity guide as it involves that item.
18) You’ll come across items called, “Soul of an undead warrior” and similar ones with different names. These are effectively currency, but they are inventory items, as opposed to the souls you amass whilst fighting. Whereas you lose your amassed souls when dying in your bloodstain (And only have 1 more chance to get them back without dying again, or they’re lost forever), the soul inventory items stay in your inventory upon death. So use these when at a bonfire to help boost your soul count to reach the required amount to level up/upgrade weapon etc
19) Most importantly, and I cannot stress this enough – Have Fun!

We look forward to hearing your tales of woe, frustration and comedy deaths

Humanity guide –

Types

Type 1 - Humanity item

These are the items that you find in the game world, and are stored as an item in your inventory along with your other consumables.

If you use one, you will fully restore you HP, and you will increase your humanity stat (top left, to the left of your health and stamina) by 1.

Type 2 - Soft Humanity

This is the measurement of your current tally of humanity, which you can check by looking at that figure in the top left next to your health and stamina. When you start, it will be 00.

1) Consuming humanity item
2) Kill enemies in an area where you haven't killed the boss. Up to 10. Takes a while.
3) Kill an invading Darkwraith, or players invading you with a cracked red eye orb, or black phantom npc's.

Use

1) Revive to human form at a bonfire
2) Kindle a bonfire so you get more estus flasks when resting at it (v. useful. Firelink shrine always gives you 10. But most others only give you 5 until you kindle them. Later on you can raise this limit)
3) The more soft humanity you have 'active' so to speak, the more benefits you get. For instance, it will increase your defenses. It also increases damage with certain weapons, especially chaos weapons. (up to 10 humanity)
4) It increases your item discovery rate, enabling you to farm/find items more effectively
5) Increases curse resistance
6) Some covenants require donations of humanity in order to progress through their ranks

Also bear in mind that using humanity to enable you to kindle a bonfire will put you in human form. If you are in human form, you can be invaded (assuming you're online)

I think that's about it, but I may have missed some bits and bobs

Feel free to ask any questions – we all did, which is why this bloody thread is massive now!

Other things to include...
- Stamina recovers faster if you drop your guard
- Summoned human phantoms cannot normally regain health, if you see they're running low or have just been smacked to the ground and could be killed take a swig of your estus as this will heal them as well...
- This game does not pause! Hitting start does not make it OK to get a drink or go to the loo...Enemies in range will attack you if aggro'd and you can be invaded at all times (though not all areas)

Also another way of acquiring Type 2 humanity would be letting yourself be summoned and helping another player defeat a boss...

The jump timing was so hit and miss for me for ages, I just couldn't get the timing, the bit near Firelink with the shiney at the back caused me so much death! Now I'm very confident when I fling myself off an edge.